ROVER COMPANY

The Rover Company is a former British car manufacturing company founded as Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry in 1878. The company traded as Rover manufacturing cars between 1904 and 1967 when it was sold to Leyland Motor Corporation, becoming the Rover marque. The marque went through several lifetimes before its liquidation in 2005.

After developing the template for the modern bicycle with its Rover Safety Bicycle of 1885, the company moved into the automotive industry. It started building motorcycles and Rover cars, using their established marque with the iconic Viking Longship, from 1904 onwards. Land Rover vehicles were added from 1948 onwards, with all production moving to the Solihull plant after World War II.